Help Young Children in Kindergarten!

On 14th September the kindergarten opened in Xhevdet Doda Advanced Elementary School in Bulqize offering forty five children aged between three and six years old the opportunity to learn and develop.  The first three-month semester has now passed with the children attending the kindergarten regularly and settling into the daily routine.  Through your support and donations of toys from Albania and Kosova, the kindergarten was able to offer the children a good start.

Lobbying by the school director and Partnerë për Fëmijët with the Education Office it was possible to open a second kindergarten class in the same school.  This has resulted in the children being divided into two kindergarten classes with two educators, one in each.  Although still a high ratio of children to staff the provision of two classes is a big improvement and big effort on behalf of the local government to provide a good start to the children's life long learning.

So not only are we supporting with toys and equipment one kindergarten class but now we aim to support the second class thus enabling the same level of quality learning and development for all the children.

Both educators attended a three day training course in November in Tirana with twelve other educators on a child rights based early learning programme for children aged two to primary school age.  The training was practical and provided the educators with real examples and practice of how to involve young children in their own learning and activities that can be easily adapted and used within the national preschool curricula.  Sylvia especially liked the training and has used some of the activities already with her group of children.  The manual, support visits and guidance will continue to enhance the approach and confidence of the educators in their classes.

More toys were delivered in October and November to the children and this caused lots of excitement.  The children were amazed that the toys were for them.  Curiosity had Beni aged five years old asking if he could play with the red truck.  He added; "we have so many toys now, I can't wait to play with them all."  "I love to draw, see I have drawn my friend.  I love lots and lots of colours," said Linda.

January and February will see snow falling in Bulqize so keeping the classes warm will be a priority so the purchase of carpets for both rooms is a necessity.  Can you help us to fulfill this need?

To everyone who made donations during December, a very big thank you!  Your support has been a big boost to supporting the young children of  Bulqize.